January 23, 2006

SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION!!!

This is the kind of story that begs to be broadcast on the evening news, in its entirety, but never is...

This is the kind of story that makes me sick to my stomach to be a blogger.

This is the kind of story that should make all readers call their political representatives and protest, write letters to the media and organize demonstrations to enforce media coverage.

Sure, it's just one more dead Iraqi. Maybe he was a bad guy - we will never know. He never got his day in court...

A senior Iraqi general stuffed head-first into a sleeping bag, bound with electrical cord and suffocated. A US Army officer who was sitting on his chest when he died. A court room drama with a top secret witness testifying behind a green tarpaulin suspended from the courtroom roof. A defence lawyer who has to apologize to the judge after accidentally saying the word "CIA".

UPDATE: The US Army officer guilty, but only of "negligent homocide" with a maximum 3 years in jail.

The defence argued that Welshofer was interpreting an email from superiors sent in August 2003, three months before Mowhoush died. The email, from Captain William Ponce, said: "The gloves are coming off, gentlemen ... we want these individuals broken. Casualties are mounting."

Welshofer deserves punishment for killing Mowhoush. But the presidential administration and Army chain of command that lets military prisoners be stuffed in sleeping bags or wall lockers or held down to have water poured down their mouths and noses won't get their due. The "nonmilitary" folks (read CIA) whom a witness said beat Mowhoush two days before he died have not even been charged.

1 comment:

Pfft. The only reason you or I know a damn thing about it is because someone leaked to the press. Otherwise the official explanation ("Mowhoush said he didn't feel well and subsequently lost consciousness" -- I shit you not, those are the exact words) would have been it, and the first "investigation" would have been the final one (my summary of it).